I wonder if you like the nice tie that I'm wearing here today. You don't know if you can see it from the distance. First time I wear this tie. I think it's quite a friendly color. It's a very friendly color. So on the subject today — you've got a friend — and I thought this might be quite suitable. But there is another reason for my wearing this tie. Because it has great significance for me. It is a tie given to me by somebody who once was my enemy and now has become my good friend. It was given to me only about three months ago when I left Canada. This is made in Canada. 100% silk. So you can see that since we are speaking about friendship, a tie given by someone who was once an enemy and now a friend, well, that's very important.
The person who gave me this tie, some of you will know. In fact, not only some of you will know — he's more than just a friend to some of you. He's the father of Pastor Boone, and of course the father-in-law of his wife. So, you say then, how come he was your enemy? But Pastor Boone knows very well what he was. Yes, many years ago, more than twelve years ago, when Pastor Boone and his two brothers, Chuan and Chen Chen, applied to join the full-time training in the church, when they came to see me — his father came to see me. And I remember that conversation very clearly. Father said to me, "You have taken my three sons. I only have three sons. You've taken all of them. You give me back one. I'm satisfied if you give me back one, at least one." I said to him, "Mr. Chen, I think you don't quite get the picture yet. I never took any of your sons. They came following the Lord. If they follow me, it's only because they are following the Lord, not because of me." And I said that they are entirely free people. If they don't want to go to the training, they don't have to join the training. It's their decision, not mine. This is their freedom, this is their choice.
Well, obviously they were not satisfied with that answer. But I couldn't do anything about it since it was their decision to join the training. But over the years, the Lord did wonderful things. And I have the privilege to see the change in their lives in a way that even Pastor Boone hasn't had the chance to see, because I've been in Montreal and he hasn't recently anyway. His parents have opened their home for a Bible study every week to take place in their home. Every Sunday they're in church, and there's such a joy in their faces that refreshes our heart. The other day, it was Father's Day, that's right, Father's Day. And Mr. Tan was asked to share a few words. And the chairperson said, "Now Mr. Boone, who is the father of three pastors, will speak a few words to us." Wow, that is really something. Father of three pastors. Very good. I think there are many people who would be very glad if one of their sons could be a pastor, never mind three of them. And he was so happy. What a transformation.
And so when he heard I was leaving — because in the meantime, we have become very good friends — he said, "I know you are very busy, but can we have a lunch before you go?" I looked at my timetable. I don't know how to squeeze in the time. But I said, "Okay, we'll try. We'll work something out." And so we did, and that's when he presented me with this beautiful tie. Isn't it wonderful what God can do? To change an enemy into a friend — I think this is something so wonderful that I experienced in walking with the Lord.
And Mr. and Mrs. Tan are not the only ones. I didn't mention Mrs. Tan because in that conversation twelve years ago, she was so angry. But now, ah, what a difference. There is such warmth and love in the Lord. Mr. and Mrs. Tan are not the only ones whom the Lord has turned from being enemies into friends, and for all of these, I do thank the Lord very deeply. In fact, there may be even one or two sitting here today who are in a similar position as were Mr. and Mrs. Tan before and have now become friends. So God is not only a friend, He also makes friends for us.
So, today I would like to share with you the biblical teaching, and put very briefly and concisely: what is the condition of friendship with God? What is the concept of God as a friend among men? Now our concept of God as friend is often someone who drags us out of a difficult situation when we fall into one. In our concept of God, when we have a friend, God is our friend. He is the one who rescues us, in other words, in difficult times. That seems to be almost all the concept one has of friendship with God.
I was reading a whole collection of accounts of God's intervention in helping people recently. And one account in this book was about a pastor of a church in the Midwest of the United States. He was in a very difficult situation. His mother-in-law became very ill, very sick with some form of cancer. So his wife went to look after the mother, and also he had to look after the baby. So this resulted in a situation where he had to travel between where he was pastoring to where his mother-in-law and now wife and child were also staying. So he had to work out some arrangement. And the result was that he was traveling almost every week, seventeen hours across to the eastern side of the United States. This kind of traveling left him quite worn out. He was doing this for many, many months, and getting more and more tired. Sometimes he tried to drive the distance. Sometimes he took the bus. But either way he was worn out.
So somebody in the church who was a farmer had his own little plane that he used for spraying crops and things. So he said, "Why not I fly you across to the other side and save you this trouble of this exhaustion of traveling?" And he cut the traveling time down to only a few hours. So he was a friend who came to help him in his hour of need. And so they came at the weekend and they got into the light plane and flew eastwards across the states.
And as they flew across, they discovered that the cloud cover was getting heavier and heavier. This is just a light plane used for agricultural purposes. So the result was in heavy cloud they can't see where they're going. Everything depended on contact with radio to the ground. Actually, much of the time in the past when they were flying, they would look on the ground and follow the map. But if you can't see the ground, then you've got problems.
So by this time, they were more than halfway across to where they were going. They got to South Carolina, which is in the southeastern United States. They were aiming to get to North Carolina. And then they discovered that radio was having problems as well. That's the way it goes, isn't it? When things go wrong, everything starts going wrong. But they thought, well, not far to go. We're already in South Carolina. They would like guidance from the airport tower, since they couldn't see the ground. But then the airport said, "The fog here is so thick that we can't give you instructions to land. We can hardly see the runway ourselves. You'd better go somewhere else if you can find somewhere to land." And the pilot of this small plane radioed back to say, "We don't have enough gasoline to go anywhere. We have to come in." And after that there was radio silence. And somehow the radio didn't work anymore.
So the pilot said to the pastor who was sitting behind him, "You'd better try and see — whenever we fly over a hole in the clouds, we look down on the ground and see whether you can spot where we are." The poor pastor had never sat in this kind of light plane. How was he going to look at the map, look at the ground at the same time? So anyway, the pilot was following his compass. At some point he felt that he must be more or less over the airport now, according to his mental calculation. And his fuel was just about running out. He said, "We have to descend." So he tried his radio again. And how happy he was, because on the other end of the radio he heard a voice. A very friendly and warm greeting, and then the voice said, "We have received your signal. You can follow my instructions to descend." They had been rather afraid and discouraged for a while, because in such thick fog, without radar guidance, to descend would be extremely dangerous. Then they heard this very kind voice saying, "Follow my instructions." And they heard the instructions: bring your plane down a bit, turn left a bit. Steady your aircraft. And slowly come down.
They landed safely, and they thanked the control tower for the excellent instructions that gave them such a safe landing. But the answer they heard made all their hair stand on end. Control tower said, "What instructions? We lost radio contact with you over North Carolina, and since then we've never been in radio contact with you." They looked at one another and said, "Who gave us instructions to land?" Suddenly they realized that the voice that spoke to them was no human voice. God was a friend in need. You could think of no one else that gave any instructions. This is a true account given by the person himself, who was the pastor that flew in that plane.
For those who walk with God, this kind of experience is not, in fact, very unusual. For those who don't walk with God, this kind of experience is astonishing. I get the same response: "Can these things be true that you have shared?" My answer to them is, if I've shared anything, I have not only not exaggerated it, I have actually played it down.
But along this line, when you are in a crisis, you are in a life and death situation, you say, "God, help me, please." That's what they were doing on the plane. They were crying out to God, "Please help me." Many times many people have to say, "God, help me, please." And that is what they often experience — God's intervention. Because the Lord Jesus gave the parable of the good Samaritan, and you know that parable very well. But he who taught such a parable will surely himself practice it, would he not? If you were in that desperate situation, would not the Lord Jesus come to your aid? Very often, he will. And he will do everything necessary to save us at that time — even if he has to speak to you on the radio and guide you down safely to the airport. You know the character of the Lord Jesus.
But now the issue is this: it is not so much whether Jesus will come to your help when you are in need. The question is whether that establishes a friendship with him. Now that is a very different question. And this is what I want to bring to your attention today.
Let's think of the good Samaritan again. The Lord Jesus said there was this man who fell among robbers on the Jericho road. He was so badly beaten by these robbers, as well as having his possessions taken away. He was left for dead. And there comes the Samaritan who then has mercy and pity upon this badly injured person and risks his own safety to help him. And so he takes him on his own donkey, takes him to a hostel where he can be cared for, and pays for whatever expenses are involved.
But now the question is: did this Samaritan become friends with this person who was injured after he recovered? Or was that the end of the contact? Would he simply say, "Oh, that Samaritan was so kind to me"? If he left me there on the road, I would have died. I was so badly injured, lost so much blood, I might not have survived. But he was so good. He washed my wounds, brought me to the inn and took care of me. If it stopped there, he might not have gained a friend. In fact, if you pay attention, the Samaritan left his contact details, or at least a way to be contacted. If you look at the parable carefully, you will see it. The Samaritan said to the innkeeper, "Here is the money for the expenses. If it is not enough, when I come back, I will repay you." In other words, this Samaritan was not just passing through the Jericho road by chance — he traveled that way regularly, and he would come back again.
If the injured man wanted this friendship, he could only wait, or ask the innkeeper, when the Samaritan comes back, to bring him to him. How many people, having received or experienced God's kindness, really bothered to follow up that experience with a deep friendship with God? When I experienced God's saving mercy in China, when he picked me out of a life and death situation, I think the difference was this: I realized that this is the most wonderful friend to have. And from that day to this, I've been pursuing that friendship with him. But I noticed that many Christians don't do that.
They are satisfied to have a relationship with God that will always be on the good Samaritan basis. They don't want God to interfere more in their lives than that. They say, "When I need God, I will call on him. When I don't need him, please stay further away from me." What do you call that? That is simply making use of God whenever you need him. And let me tell you today and make it very clear to you: on the scriptural basis, there is no way that if you treat God like that, you'll ever be a friend of his. Today's subject says, "You've got a friend." My answer is, on the basis of the Scripture, maybe yes, maybe no. It does not depend on God — it depends on you. Whether you are willing to enter into friendship with God — if you want it, there are some very important conditions you must meet. This friendship is not without conditions. One condition you can already see clearly: are you willing to pursue such a friendship? Is this important to you? Or are you like most Christians, who feel, "Well, when I have needs, you come and help me, that's already enough"? Are you satisfied with just that?
Maybe a little more, you say. Because sometimes I need him for more than that. For example, which job should I apply for? Where should I go to work? So I don't need to go to a fortune teller; I go to God. Because a fortune teller you have to pay. God is free. That's the best, isn't it? When I'm driving, I say to God, "God, protect me," because I have children at home. Because even life insurance you have to pay for. But if God is your bodyguard, that's even better. When you pass through a dark alley, especially in Hong Kong — looking left and right, feeling a bit afraid — "Lord, help me." Then you remember God. On the main road, you don't think about God. But when you turn into a dark alley, then you think you need God. And after you pass through that dark alley, you forget God's existence. Is this not the pattern of our lives?
We are here to make use of God. Is a friend there to be made use of? Is that how we think of friendship? I tell you, God does not want such a friend. Let me make it very clear to you: if you treat God like this, you will not get the help of God. You are simply wanting to use him for your own purposes. If God agreed to that, he would make you more and more selfish, more selfish than anybody else. That's why some Christians are more selfish than non-Christians. They only think of God as a kind of backup, as a kind of emergency help whenever they need him. I would agree that that is shameful.
There are two kinds of friendship. The first kind cannot even be called friendship by biblical definition. And that is the friendship, if we may call it that, which is self-seeking, as I've just illustrated to you. Seeking from the other person whatever one wants. It's the kind of thing we are very familiar with already among young people. The sort of stuff where you say, "I love you so much." Actually, what is meant by "love" is, "I like in you what I can get from you." So, some young people say, "I love you, I love you." What is "I love you"? Because you have some things, I like you. I love what you've got. That's what it is. Not "I love you," but "I love what you've got and what I want." So, if you have quite a lot of money, oh, you have lots of friends; they love you. That means they love your money. Wait till you have no money, and then you wonder what happened to your friends.
The same thing also between boys and girls. It's looking for something in the other person, maybe satisfaction of one's sexual desires. You have this kind of so-called friendship even among robbers, among gangsters. There's a so-called partnership, a so-called friendship. Because you know very well that it's hard to rob a bank on your own. So, you need three or four people to help you rob the bank. So, you have so-called friends: "Together we rob the bank and we'll split what we can get." And that is, of course, if the splitting is convenient. If not, you'll just knock off a few of them after robbing the bank. But as long as there is a kind of convenience, to have this so-called working relationship or friendship. And this kind of friendship is all self-seeking.
So the interesting thing is that you know that you don't want this kind of friend, and yet you are willing to be that kind of friend. That is because of the innate selfishness of man. That's why I said if God agreed to be your friend in that sense — that whenever you need protection, you need money, you need guidance, then you want to turn to God — if he accepted that, he would encourage your selfishness. That is why when you become a Christian and you function in a self-centered way, you're going to find that God doesn't answer your prayers. You will find that God is not listening to you, and you will wonder, "How come I pray and God never seems to hear me?" For that very reason, he cannot continue to encourage this self-centeredness.
In the newspaper, the Straits Times, on the very day after we arrived, I see the title: "Texan kills son over a televised football match." I looked at this again carefully. What happened is that he was watching a football match between the Dallas Cowboys or something. He was watching this match and his son, three years old, was making too much noise for his liking. The mother was out at the time. So because he could not enjoy the football match with his son making noise, he punched the three-year-old boy, his little son, several times in the stomach. He hit him so hard that it ruptured his liver and his kidneys. He hit him so hard that the son died.
Surely parents love their children, do they not? And this son, interestingly, because the names are given, his son is named after himself, exactly his own name. In other words, he wanted the son to be an image of himself. So he has the same name. Yet even this identification with his son was not enough to save his son from death. In the Hong Kong paper, I see another astonishing title just recently. About two sons who starved their mother to death. He doesn't explain why.
# Friendship with God (Continued)
That this woman, 1.63 meters tall, was weighing only 27 kilos, that is 59 pounds, 59 and a half pounds, when the police found her. Why did the police find her? She finally reached the hospital operator for help. When the police arrived and they rushed her to the hospital, she couldn't be saved. She was already too far starved to be able to be saved. The two sons — and they were not kids. One was 22 years old, the other 25 years old. Of course, then charged with first degree murder. Can you understand this? A father killing a son? Sons killing the mother? What kind of world do we live in? We can't imagine that.
These may be extreme cases, but they do reflect something in the human heart: of extreme selfishness. Maybe you will say this is a more extreme case. But if the son gets in the father's way — too bad for the son. If the mother gets in the son's way — too bad for the mother. These instances cause me to think: is it really possible for human beings to build up a friendship with one another? If the closest human relationships are not the basis for friendship, what is?
In the same day's Straits Times, I see another item, where the fiancé is killed. In other words, two people have a relationship, they are not yet married, they are in a fiancé relationship, and the girl comes on TV giving a report in a police interview that her fiancé was murdered by two men. And on this TV interview, which is shown here, she was crying and pleading for help to capture the murderers of her fiancé. She said that they had a dinner together. She and her fiancé had dinner together. They went out to a quiet lane. They were driving, and then they overtook somebody. And that person was so mad about being overtaken that he came out and stabbed her fiancé to death. And the turn of events was that the police, having investigated the matter, charged her with the murder. The whole story was fabricated by this woman. And she herself, for reasons not given here, had killed her fiancé.
How do you build friendship in a world like this? In the very next item, in the same newspaper, it says the doctor threw his wife out of the third story window because he lost control of himself. What kind of a world is this? I give you all a variety of situations — father, mother, sons, daughters, your fiancés, whatever. Seems in every area, there is an amazing level of betrayal. Is there such a thing as a self-giving friendship? Is a truly genuine relationship among people possible? If it's not even possible, then talking about friendship as we are doing now is really a waste of time.
We have to understand that human nature requires a radical transformation before friendship is even possible. We have to understand that in a selfish relationship, each wants to take from the other, and in the end neither has enough. In a self-giving relationship, both give to each other, and both have more than enough. This sounds very reasonable, but in reality it is very hard to achieve. But this is the only kind of friendship that God desires and delights in.
I hope you understand this completely clearly. This is the central point of what I am sharing today. Even if you forget everything else I've said, I hope you remember this one point: God is looking for friends. Throughout thousands of years of history, I can tell you, God has found very few friends. That is why in the Old Testament, those who can be called friends of God can be counted on the fingers of one hand. We can speak of Abraham, perhaps Noah, perhaps Moses, perhaps a few prophets, and then we run out of names. These few are called friends of God. In other words, God was their friend. But through the centuries, through the millennia, very, very few. Because of human nature.
This is something that causes me great pain. What is the use of a church being full of people if they are not friends of God? Today, in this gathering, how many can say they are friends of God? How many of us can meet God's conditions such that God can call us friends? God has made his conditions very clear to us. For example, in Luke chapter 10, verse 27, or Mark 12, verses 30-31: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." You shall love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. Familiar? Very familiar.
So never say that you didn't know what was the condition of friendship with God. Nothing less than that is acceptable to God. If I asked anyone here who has fulfilled this condition to raise your hand, I wonder how many would dare to raise your hand. I wouldn't embarrass you now by asking you to raise your hand, because I think very few in good conscience would dare. That's why I said: what's the use of a church being full of people when not one even dares? Very few would dare to raise their hand to say, "I love God with my whole being, and I can prove it with the life that I live."
God has made it perfectly clear that there is only one way that we can be friends with him. It doesn't mean he will never come to our help if we are not his friends. Such is God's graciousness that he helps us even when we are not fulfilling his requirements. That is his kindness. But the fact that he helps you doesn't mean that you are his friend. You miss something. You miss everything in life. God offers his friendship, but whether in the Old Testament or in the New, he has made it perfectly clear: "You want to be my friend? You must love me with everything you've got."
I said at the beginning that when Pastor Boone and his three brothers responded to God, they were willing to give everything they had to love God. They put their careers aside, they put their lives aside. The main purpose was to respond to God's call — to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then their father came to understand what this meant. Now we see their father also willingly learning to love God. Of course, this requires that the self within the human heart must be changed, the self must die, the selfishness must be removed.
I must tell you that sometimes people may seem to lay down their selfishness, but over time they gradually pick it back up again. Unfortunately, this happens. At one time they feel that serving God — the cost is too great. They feel that being friends with God, the price is too high. They would rather run back to this world. Unfortunately, this situation also happens quite often. Sometimes sadly, they may have already spent quite some time in the Lord's work. I can tell you frankly that in God's work, many times we are tempted. Sometimes we feel perhaps the cost is truly too great, perhaps we can pull back a little.
But we remember what the Lord says in Hebrews: "If anyone shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."
When it comes to friendship, the strongest example in the Bible is the friendship between Jonathan and David. I would encourage everyone to go back and read 1 Samuel chapters 18 to 24, the account of David and Jonathan. This passage is something Christians should read frequently to understand. The friendship between David and Jonathan is very representative. Their mutual commitment to each other was very complete. But many Christians may not see that this should be a model for our relationship with God. In other words, the Bible gives us a detailed account — this is not an exceptional case, but the kind of relationship every Christian should have with God.
Let me give you a few examples because our time is running short. When you look at what the Lord Jesus said, for example in Matthew 10:37, he says: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." What the Lord Jesus is saying is the same thing: you must love me above all else. If there is anything else you love more than me, you are not worthy to be my disciple. So when you look at the relationship between Jonathan and David, you see this very principle lived out. You can see that Jonathan loved David more than he loved his own father. Do you remember why? Because Jonathan understood that David was God's anointed.
Sometimes the Messiah is also called "David." You know that "Messiah" is the Hebrew word for "Christ," and "Christ" is the Greek translation. In other words, through Jonathan's relationship with David, he also established a friendship with the Messiah. You know that Christ was born from the line of David, which is why in Christmas carols we often sing about the city of David.
The Lord Jesus also said, "Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Jonathan loved David more than his own children. In fact, in practice, his love for David meant he renounced even himself. Do you know what it means that he denied himself? Jonathan was Saul's son. At that time Saul was the king of Israel. So who was Jonathan? He was the one who would inherit the throne. So when he chose to support David, in other words, he gave up his throne. And of course, when he gave up the throne, his sons would not have the privilege of inheriting it either.
In Matthew 10:38, it says: "He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me." Jonathan's friendship with David cost him very dearly. It was a very heavy cross. Because of his friendship with David, because of his loyalty to David, his father was very angry. You could say Jonathan also risked his life to love David. Just like that angry father who killed his own child — at one point Saul almost killed Jonathan.
The Lord Jesus also said in Matthew 16:24, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." This is what we see Jonathan did. Though he could have inherited the throne, he was willing and glad to follow David. He gladly handed his throne over to David. He said, "When you inherit the throne, please remember me and let me sit at your right hand." This is self-sacrificing friendship.
Earlier, at one point, he even gave his weapons, his sword, to David. For a soldier, that means he gave everything to David. And his military equipment was not an ordinary soldier's equipment — it was a prince's weapons. In other words, when he gave his military uniform to David, he was giving his throne to David.
In Luke 9:26, the Lord Jesus says, "Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory." And Jonathan was in no way ashamed of David. Don't think that not being ashamed of David was an easy thing. You must remember that at that time David was an outcast. He was a nobody. In fact, he was treated by Saul as a criminal. And David was running for his life, with Saul repeatedly trying to kill him. To be associated with a criminal, an outlaw — but Jonathan was never ashamed to let his father know that he loved David. He even tried to convince his father to accept David back.
So I say to you, here you see the model of discipleship. A self-giving friendship, unspeakably beautiful. This is the importance of the Jonathan and David story in the Bible. That's why I try to show you what the Lord Jesus says: "If you want to be my disciple" — if you don't understand all this terminology about denying the self and so on, just look at the Jonathan-David model and you understand it. What Jesus is saying is this: you want to be my disciple? Learn from Jonathan. If you don't want to be a Jonathan, you won't be my disciple. You are not worthy to be my disciple. To be a disciple is to be his friend.
Now you can see why I said there is only one kind of person God wants as a friend. And that is the kind of person who can deny himself and love him — that is, love Jesus with everything he has got. That is the one who is willing to be his disciple.
The Lord Jesus often said to those who were listening to his preaching: "You hear and you listen, but you haven't heard what I said. You look but you don't see." You think, "Oh, those poor people. They don't see." But I think many Christians are blind. They haven't heard what Jesus said. So I'm saying it as clearly as it's possible to be said today, and let nobody ever say they haven't heard it before.
Today we talked about "You've got a friend." But friendship is a two-way relationship, not a one-way relationship. You cannot have a friend without being a friend. That is the whole point. And God has said, if you want to be my friend, this is the condition. The question is not whether he is a friend. That is not an issue. But there will be no two-way relationship unless we will be his friend. And the only way to be his friend is what he told us: you must put away your selfishness, and then love me with everything you have, like Jonathan did. Then you will enter into a new kind of life, a friendship with God that you have never even known was possible.
And you will become one of those very rare specimens in the history of the world who can be called friends of God. You will be one of those few stars in the spiritual heavens, like Abraham and Moses. This friendship with God is a privilege not granted to angels. It is offered to man. And yet, as I said, out of millions, there will be only one. Two million people came out of Egypt to go to the promised land. How many entered the promised land out of that original two million from Egypt? As far as friendship with God is concerned, I wonder if there will even be one out of a million.
Let me tell you one last story before we have to close today. You will realize I use these stories as parables. Just like the Lord Jesus told parables, which were simply stories. And if you look around you, there are parables everywhere. That's why the Lord's parables were all about everyday life things. That's why the newspaper is a very good source of parables. And I was struck with a title from the Hong Kong paper called the Hong Kong Standard. It says: "The man who couldn't kill himself."
Well, I thought, "Oh yeah? Killing oneself can't be that difficult. Maybe he was a coward." So I looked at the story. It concerned a person who gradually slipped into alcohol. He was a journalist who gradually lost everything through alcohol, including his wife. He felt that there was nothing left to live for, and he sunk into deep depression. So one day he took his shotgun. A shotgun — it's a rifle with two barrels in it. A hunting rifle. It's used for shooting because you can use different kinds of ammunition in it. These kinds of hunting rifles have two barrels side by side. Sometimes one on top of the other, sometimes side by side.
He put his bullets into these two barrels. He opened his mouth, and he put the barrels into his mouth, facing upward to his brain. Now the thing with this kind of shotgun is that you can pull one trigger or two at the same time. And so he pulled both triggers at the same time. I don't know if you know what is the power of one of these shotguns. I tried one and I was impressed, I have to say. I once tried a shotgun firing at an old fridge out in the garbage dump in Canada. There was this old white fridge standing there. I fired it from about the distance from here to the wall, using a spray-type bullet. And then when it hit the side, I was amazed. The whole side of the fridge collapsed in. It caved right in with the force of that blast. Can you imagine what it does to your brain when you fire it right to the top of your head?
Of course, he was convinced that he would literally blow his brains out. He knew that this would definitely blow his brains out. Well, amazing things do happen. And he did blow quite some of his brains out, as a matter of fact. They were all over the ceiling. The strange thing is: he didn't die. And then he was, of course, rushed off to the hospital. Anyone who hears the blast of a shotgun — it's very, very loud — and of course that draws attention. And they did what they could for him, and he recovered.
But the amazing thing is not that he didn't die. What happened was that his whole character was changed as a result of it. He became a very happy kind of person. You would have thought that he would have become a cabbage even if he lived. He would have become so brain-damaged as to be non-functional. But no, he recovered. The only effects left on him were that he was blind in one eye and he had a limp in the left leg. Apart from that, he recovered fully. And of course they had to put a metal plate into his mouth where the hole was.
What happened is what in medicine is called a prefrontal lobotomy. That is, in some mental cases, they perform an operation on the brain which is called a lobotomy, which then causes a character restructuring. And it seems that with the shotgun, unintentionally he performed this surgery on himself. Amazingly, he also lost all desire to drink alcohol. So his alcoholism was also cured. And he became a very cheerful, positive, outgoing kind of person.
Well, when I read this story, I thought to myself, isn't that amazing? That in attempting to kill himself, he made himself into a new person. He destroyed the old person and became new. A person who never had friends before because of his unpleasant disposition, now had lots of friends. Because now he became a friendly person, a person who would be a friend to others. The old selfishness somehow disappeared because he was willing to put himself to death.
Of course, I am not at all suggesting we should all perform this kind of surgery on ourselves. But what we can see is that unless the old self is dealt away with, we cannot really have God as friend. That is what it means to die with Christ, to be crucified with him, and so enter into a whole new way of life.